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Demolition contractors are being urged to tighten checks on the skills cards of workers on their sites after the discovery of bogus CCDO cards.

Above: Real or fake?

A number of fraudulent Certification of Competence of Demolition Operatives (CCDO) cards have been discovered at a printing company in England, it is said.

While there is currently no evidence yet that the cards are being used on site, the National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC) has issued a warning to members to be extra stringent with their on-site checks.

NFDC chief executive Howard Button said: “The NFDC were recently asked to verify the authenticity of a number of cards, which were later discovered to be counterfeit. Managers need to be extra careful checking the details of operators at induction, and ongoing spot checks are highly recommended.”

He added: “The problem of fake cards is easily overcome by the use of the CCDO smart card scheme, which with a single scan can verify the validity of the operator’s qualifications. All cards issued from January 2017 can be immediately verified on site using the Go Smart card reading system by site managers. In addition, the NFDC and its training company the National Demolition Training Group has now launched the first ‘Virtual’ Card, whereby the operator’s details are stored on an app, which is checked in much the same way, but it negates the need for a physical card. This effectively puts the fraudsters out of business.”